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starlitangels · 2 years

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Scouting

I’ve been writer’s blocked for several weeks and it’s been slowly driving me up the wall. So, I asked @palilious for something to write. Here’s the result. 2.3k words I cannot feasibly imagine David actually agreeing to something like this, but... I pay attention and I know who Pali likes ;P

—

“Psst. Angel,” David whispered. The words, quiet and gentle, but definitely his, roused me from sleep.

I groaned and rolled over. “Time is it?” I muttered, semi-coherent.

“Five.”

I groaned again and wrapped my pillow around my head. “Wake me in four hours. At least.”

He cupped the side of my head with a quiet chuckle. “C’mon. I made breakfast,” he said. I released my grip on the pillow and opened my eyes to see him standing beside the bed, leaning over me. He smiled. “Well, that certainly got a reaction out of you. At least I know food will entice you out of bed when I can’t.”

I shrugged and sat up. “I’m predictable.”

David didn’t reply immediately as an amused look crossed his face. “If you say so,” he said. He helped me swing out of bed and I leaned on him hard as we went to the kitchen of the little cabin.

I yawned wide as David set a plate in front of me. “So,” I said around my yawn, “to what do I owe the pleasure of being awoken at this ungodly hour of the morning while I’m on vacation?” I wrapped my fingers around the fork David pressed into my hand and lazily dropped the tines toward the food.

David sat next to me and began to eat his breakfast. “I thought you wanted to go with me and scout the path the pack is taking on the run tonight,” he said.

“Yeah because I knew you’d never agree to it.”

“I’d like it if you came with me,” he remarked.

“You said you were going to scout the path in wolf form,” I pointed out around a mouthful of food.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” David chided. I shrugged. “I am planning on scouting in wolf form. That’s why we’re up before the sun is. So no one else around here sees a giant black wolf moving through the woods faster than any wolf has a right to.”

“So how am I supposed to join you? I can’t keep up with you in wolf form. You’ve made that abundantly clear,” I grumbled into my hand where I’d braced my face against it.

“You already gave a suggestion for how you could join me, if you recall.”

I dropped my hand from my face, immediately awake, and stared at him. “Wait, seriously?” I demanded. David just raised an eyebrow. “I suggested it because I figured you’d never agree to it. I just said it to get a rise out of you.”

“As much as I figured that was the case, I also thought that—just this once—I could indulge you.” He pointed to my plate. “Finish your breakfast and get your snow gear on. It’s gonna be really cold. I run fast. Especially today.”

“Do I need my ski goggles?”

David paused thoughtfully, staring into the middle distance over my shoulder, before answering, “That might not be a bad idea.”

I blinked, mildly surprised. He was actually agreeing to this. Holy hell.

“O-okay,” I said. “Gimme a minute to finish this. It’s really good, by the way.”

He kissed the side of my head. “Nothing but the best for my mate.”

“Someone’s sappy today,” I teased.

He shrugged. “It’s the solstice. I feel... good.”

I smiled. “I’m glad.” I took another bite of breakfast.

—

“Okay... how does this work?” I asked. “‘Cause, like, you’re not wearing any clothes so...”

David scoffed and rolled his eyes. “After I shift, open the door then close it behind us and use the porch stairs to get some extra height. I’m still tall in wolf form and it won’t be easy from the ground.”

I cannot believe this is actually happening, I thought. “Okay,” I said.

“You won’t be able to hear me and I’m not shifting back until we come back inside here because it’ll be too damn cold, so just trust me, okay?”

“I do trust you, Davey.”

“I know, angel.” He kissed my forehead.

David stretched his muscles before giving me that smirk that he knew—he kneeew—would get my heart racing before leaning forward and shifting. His front paws hit the carpet and he shook out his coat like there was water in it. He was dry, but I’d noticed he did the same thing to his hair sometimes.

I opened the door to the cabin and let him trot out before slipping out after him, shutting it behind us, and putting the key in the pocket of my parka. Living most of the time in balmy, temperate southern California meant my cold tolerance was lacking—and up here in the mountains it was freezing. I had on my parka, a hat tied under my chin, gloves, and snow pants, and I was still chilly the second the cold wind hit the bits of my face that were exposed.

David stood in front of the porch stairs expectantly, bright green eyes vibrant in the relative darkness, sticking out from the black void that was his fur.

I crossed over and went down to the second step from the bottom. “This is gonna end well,” I muttered under my breath.

Davey huffed out his nose and gave me a look that screamed This was your idea. Which I was well aware of—but that didn’t mean it was a good idea. Oftentimes, my ideas weren’t. It was one of the reasons Davey and I were good for each other, because he could make me see when my ideas were bad and not to do them, and I could get him to get the stick out of his ass.

I took a fistful of fur at his shoulder and swung my leg up and over his back, settling just behind his forelegs. He turned to look at me as best he could. The muscles where his eyebrows would be twitched. Ready?

I wrapped my other fingers into his coat behind his other shoulder. The grip wasn’t as strong as I’d like, given my gloves were cotton and the fibers slipped a bit, but I’d probably be able to hold on. I gulped, steeling myself, before nodding in determination. He won’t let me fall, I reminded myself. Davey will never let me fall.

If a wolf could smile, David did. He turned to face the woods beyond the cabin, bent his legs a little, as though preparing to pounce—

And shot forward.

I yelped as the force almost immediately threw me back and tightened my grip on Davey’s fur. He didn’t seem to mind. His coat was thick enough that I could bury both of my hands into it, one on top of the other, and still keep going, trying to find his skin. Hopefully he didn’t mind the yank of me trying to steady myself too much.

I leaned forward, low over his back, putting my face near his neck. I was grateful for the ski goggles now. I looked a little ridiculous, probably, but at least I could see.

David ran like a shadow of death—fast, sleek, and smooth. He wove between tree trunks I barely saw in the darkness. As though there was nothing to it. He told me last year that on the winter solstice—today—he was faster and stronger in his wolf form. I could tell. I’d seen him run through the woods as a wolf before—on our camping trip back in late summer—but this seemed a lot faster. Honestly, I was a bit surprised I was staying on.

Wind whipped over the exposed skin of my face, and I felt it across my scalp where it pierced through my hat’s fibers. It was frigid—and drier than the slight humidity of Dahlia. It bit at my skin.

And I felt both refreshed and displeased at the same time.

David bounded through the woods—and I could tell by the way he moved that he was having a good time. He was a serious man. Had been since I met him. But there was something about when he was in his wolf form that... freed him, almost.

Asher acted like an excited puppy in wolf form—I’d seen that before and after last year’s solstice run, and heard so from his mate—but David seemed to loosen up too.

I liked seeing him relax the burden on his shoulders and just run.

He turned tightly around a tree—then slowed to a stop. He paused, one paw suspended in the air, before turning around and inspecting the way we came while I just hung on. Carefully, he continued looking over the turn we’d made. He paced back and forth for a moment then looked back at me. Almost like he was asking for my opinion.

“That was a tight turn,” I said. “Do you think wolves running side-by-side would be able to make it without crashing into each other? I mean—Luke just manifested this year, right? He’s just a pup and he’s not very coordinated yet. I was talking to his mom last week and she said he keeps accidentally shifting and knocking things over. She said that’s normal but, like, can he handle a turn like that without spilling in the snow?”

David bobbed his head side-to-side in a fair point gesture and looked around thoughtfully. He went back up the path we came several dozen yards and came back to the junction.

Instead of the tight right-hand turn, he eased a little to the left and took a different direction. Which seemed to work better. He huffed out his nose in satisfaction—a cloud rising from it—and poured on even more speed.

We tore through the trees, fast as the wind running beside us, it felt like. I couldn’t help but let out a quiet whoop of joy.

David huffed again, weaving between tree trunks like slalom poles. His powerful, long stride ate up the ground beneath us and his claws flung snow up in our wake.

He ran for a long time—at least five miles—before slowing to a halt in a large, open clearing. He looked around it, and slowly circled the perimeter. I caught his head bobbing like he was counting something. “Are you measuring to see if the whole pack can fit in the clearing to take a rest here?” I asked.

He nodded. His tail swished once, the dangling black hairs whispering over the surface of the snow.

“Mind if I get down for a minute? I need to stretch,” I said.

He lowered himself down like he was going to lie in the snow, but didn’t. I slipped off his back, my boots crunching into the snow. He straightened back up and continued his measuring while I stretched out my legs. The cold had stiffened my joints and they needed to warm up. A small cloud of steam from the heat he’d generated running rose from Davey’s black fur. If he hadn’t looked like the massive, ghostly black hellhound from a nightmare before, he certainly did now. His heat hadn’t been enough to keep my joints warm, so I loosened them up myself.

Once I was done, I crunched across the clearing to stand beside where he was staring off into the trees the way we came. I set an idle hand behind his ear and scratched lightly through my gloves. He leaned into the touch a bit.

“My thighs and hips are gonna be so sore from this tomorrow,” I said casually. He rolled his eyes, but I caught the slight quiver of a snarl forming on his lips. “Hey, it’s still your fault I’m sore. Don’t get all offended that something other than you left me exhausted. It’s still your fault.”

He huffed out his nose again. Almost like a sneeze. Satisfied.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Hey, if you really want my legs to be sore because of you, we can go back to the cabin,” I remarked.

His head whipped to look at me. I couldn’t read the look on his face in the darkness. But the way he slowly lowered himself beside me gave me all the answer I needed from him.

I scrambled back on—a lot less gracefully than I had before—and bent low again.

David surged back to his feet and launched himself into the trees back the way we came.

The run back to the cabin felt a lot shorter than the run out. David panted hard. I felt the way his lungs moved against my legs. Slowly, predawn light began to filter through the trees, softening the darkness from blacks to greys.

When we got there, I slid off his back and yanked the key to the cabin out of my pocket, opening the door. David wiped his paws off on the doormat—quite politely—and slid inside. I followed and locked the door behind us.

He shifted back as I stripped off my snow gear. Sweat gleamed on his naked body, shining gently in the half-light of the single lamp I’d left on when we left.

I whistled. He scoffed and crossed to me in two long strides. With a pair of efficient movements of his arms, my remaining clothing was removed. He swung me up into his arms. “Want to make this a solstice we’ll really remember, my angel?” he asked, low and gravelly. Husky.

My heart pounded harder in my chest. His eyes flicked to where I was sure it was visible and he smirked wolfishly.

“May I take that for a yes?”

“Please,” I breathed.

The smirk widened. “With pleasure.”

—

Tag list: @zozo-01 @thegoldenlittlerose @mainhoesstuff

#Redacted ASMR #fic #Redacted David #Redacted Angel #David Shaw #Angel #David #i considered doing a Pups AU version of this #and I still might #but for now: Davey #Starlit Fic

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